New Orleans actor James DuMont, shown seated at front left in an image from the HBO series ‘The Righteous Gemstones,’ started his career as a Gerber baby in the mid-to-late 1960s. Since then, he’s compiled more than 120 movie and TV credits, most of them in supporting roles.

Meet James DuMont, New Orleans ‘secret movie star’: With more than 120 credits, he’s made a career out of being ‘that guy’

New Orleans actor James DuMont, shown seated at front left in an image from the HBO series ‘The Righteous Gemstones,’ started his career as a Gerber baby in the mid-to-late 1960s. Since then, he’s compiled more than 120 movie and TV credits, most of them in supporting roles.

PHOTO BY FRED NORRIS / PROVIDED BY HBO

New Orleans actors James DuMont and Kelton DuMont, pictured on the set of HBO’s ‘The Righteous Gemstones.’ The father and son both hold down key supporting roles in the comedy series.

Chances are, you’ve seen James DuMont before. You know that face. If you’re like most people, though, you just won’t quite know where from. He’s just “that guy.”

“I get two or three ‘that guy’ sightings a week, at least,” the New Orleans actor said, laughing. “I get a lot of second looks: ‘Are you my kid’s soccer coach?’ or ‘Did we go to a conference together?’ ”

Well, not exactly. With more than 120 movie and TV roles to his credit — not counting the myriad videos, commercials and other smaller projects he’s worked on — he’s one of New Orleans’ busiest screen actors. It’s just that the parts he tends to get are smaller, supporting parts.

“I like to say I’m a secret movie star,” he said.

Currently, he can be seen with fellow New Orleanian John Goodman in the HBO comedy series “The Righteous Gemstones” as the key recurring character Chad. He also just finished shooting the Netflix feature “Wonderland,” marking his third time working with actor Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg (after “Patriots Day” and “Deepwater Horizon”).

His list of credits goes on. He’s been in “Stranger Things.” He’s been in “Jurassic World.” He’s been in “Mad Men,” “NCIS: New Orleans,” “Dallas Buyers Club.” …

“I’m at an interesting time right now. There’s a lot of interesting opportunities,” he said. “I’m in the bureaucratic, ‘angry white dude’ space in my career. The Everyman thing is definitely the angle, if I’m trying to brand myself in any way.”

It didn’t happen overnight for him, though. Before he was an Everyman, the native Chicagoan was an Everybaby, appearing in ads for Gerber baby food “in ’66, ’67 — somewhere around there.”

As he got older, he branched out into TV commercials. By 1980, he had earned his Screen Actors Guild card with an uncredited turn in “The Blues Brothers,” as one of the kids dancing in the street during the Ray Charles number “Shake a Tail Feather.” (He’s the moppet in jeans and a gray sweatshirt at the bottom right about two and a half minutes into the number.)

From there, he’s seen steady work, in New York, then in Los Angeles, and, starting shortly after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans.

That latest chapter started with a Popeyes fried chicken commercial. Then came a recurring role in the HBO series “Treme.” More and more local roles followed. Finally, about four years ago, he decided to move from the West Coast to the Crescent City for good.

“My wife is originally from Baton Rouge, so we had been trying to move back from Los Angeles for a while,” he said. “I’d been trying to do it, honestly, since the first season of ‘Treme,’ because I felt like nowhere else had a higher quality of life for us.”

It’s also allowed his kids to toy with the idea of entering the family business. His son Kelton, a student at Jesuit High School, even landed a role in “The Righteous Gemstones,” as one of the sons of lead actor Danny McBride’s character.

“My son ended up in eight out of nine (episodes),” DuMont said. “I did seven out of nine.”

Nobody’s complaining, though. The elder DuMont said he auditions two or three times a week and gets so many offers that he has the luxury of being choosy. And while the idea of being an above-the-title movie star might be alluring, DuMont says he’s happy with just being “that guy.”

“When you get to work opposite Oscar-winning or future Oscar-winning actors, when you’re working with them, you’re on equal terms artistically,” he said. “Only when they say ‘cut’ are they treated differently than you, or when you look at your bank account.

“I’m holding my own with the best in the business — Melissa Leo, Jared Leto, Bryan Cranston. They feel I’m an equal, and, to me, that’s the most fulfilling.”